Where there’s a will, there’s porn
We always create new uses for new technologies, for good, for bad, and for everything from social media to automation.
Every year we launch products assuming users will follow the instructions, but predicting all the ways we will use new technology is impossible. Tim Berners-Lee designed and open-sourced the World Wide Web as a way to share information, and then it killed shopping malls and the music industry as we know it, and gave birth to Logan Paul. The top two uses of the internet have always been pornography and spell-checking — two things we had well before Tim changed everything.
When we were busy populating our social feeds in the 2000’s we couldn’t have known then that the same platforms would become essential for spreading Arab Spring to several countries via grassroots organizing or delivering justice for sexual assault survivors who declared #metoo. Mari Copeny, an 11-year old activist, has been using her social presence to keep alive the issue of dangerous water in Flint for years, more effectively getting help for her community than most government officials. Back in 2008, President Obama won Marketer of the Year for his campaign’s “groundbreaking use of social media” which was a first in politics; this week, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been talking about cash bonds while live-streaming her dinner preparations to an audience of thousands. We didn’t see, though, that the same network effect would also be used to ruin reputations, facilitate human trafficking, and grow and spread toxic ideas and beliefs both here in the U.S. and abroad. That took time and a lot of terrible human input.
As we wait for driverless cars and the ease they promise to deliver, experts have predicted vehicles will turn into autonomous shaggin’ wagons, mobile sex rooms fully loaded with hard liquor and vibrating beds. It’s amazing how we might behave when we’re not concerned with our hands being at 10 and 2.
The techniques that made Face Swap a hit has also made it possible to paste the face of a favorite celebrity onto a porn star’s body, creating a whole new kind of non-consensual attack. And, with a couple of programs and a short press video, you will soon be able to make any politician spout your own personal agenda. Termed Deep Fakes, these videos can be as convincing as the real thing, and they will mess with what we know to be real in very troubling ways.
We’re not calling a halt to off-label uses of technology. In fact, the best way to think about the edge cases is to study how we use new technology now. Sometimes those uses may lead to new cultural norms, the need for regulation or even policing, but you don’t know the good, the bad, and the ugly of human ingenuity until you hand over the toys.
This article was part of The Next Page, Chapter’s bi-monthly newsletter that reveals some of the more surprising things that make us human, and gives you a glimpse of life at Chapter.
